Drop Ship Six
by Dave Colton
Summary: A Group of eight SPARTANs must infiltrate a captured hospital to eliminate a rogue Elite.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer- This is the first story I've ever written that I've let people read... so if you'd like to critique it, be my guest, but please only use constructive criticism. As for plot line, this is set after Halo 3. Please enjoy. _

**CHAPTER 1**

"Go," I whispered, signaling forward. Seven acknowledge lights winked on in my HUD. The eight of us moved forward, quickly and silently, through the forest, breath heavy, hearts beating quickly. I stalked forward, assault rifle drawn. All we had was what intel had given us a few hours ago. And many things can change in an hour. We stopped at the edge of the tree line, staying to the shadows.

"Cobra, you copy," I asked, staring at him. If he couldn't hear me, he'd know I wanted to say something. His light blinked.

"Ice," I continued down the line, mentally checking off each name as I said it.

"Lynx, Razor, Hawk, Nexus, Dingo," I concluded. All of their systems were working correctly, so at the moment, I had nothing to fear. I looked at the large building, looming in front of us, imposing. Our target resided in that building, and I would be damned if I let him get out alive. SPARTANs never failed an objective unless they were dead. My group of SPARTANs was one of the elite groups. A group that had survived since augmentation and hadn't lost a single member yet, although I didn't believe all the hype that had surrounded us. Despite all the achievements we'd accomplished since the reinstallation of the SPARTAN program once the Halo rings weren't a threat anymore, we had never had a difficult mission. The odds of us succeeding were 110, compared to the average of the other teams' 50 or worse. It was only a matter of time before our distinguished past caught up with us and hit us hard. And for some reason, I had a terrible feeling in my gut this would be the mission to undo us.

"Razor and Nexus," I began, pointing out the two soldiers in question. "You stay here with Dingo and wait fifteen minutes, then infiltrate from the rear. Lynx, Hawk and I –"

"Dude, Vade," Dingo said, stepping forward. "let me come with you. You know I can fight well. And besides, I'm a higher rank then those two anyway," he concluded, attempting to pull the rank card. Personally, I hated Dingo. I didn't know how he had climbed so high in the military, since he never listened to reason or orders, for that matter.

"Austin," I began, using Dingo's real name, a tactic I employed only in dire situations, "I am your superior officer. If you disobey my direct order, I have the power to Court Marshall you, so I'd suggest you listen." There was a brief hesitation before he responded. He snapped off a crisp salute and finished with a not-so-convincing 'sir, yes, sir'.

"Are we all clear," I queried, looking at each SPARTAN in turn, my gaze lingering on Dingo the longest. They each nodded, and Lynx and Hawk stepped away from the group, preparing to follow orders as directed. I stepped up next to them, but turned to face the remaining four and give my departing orders. "Alright, fifteen minutes. No more, no less. Cobra is in charge, with Ice as second in command," I stated. Dingo began to protest, but was silenced by a swift wave from me. I returned my attention to the other to squad mates on my flanks. "Now, we run to the fence and wait there." They both nodded and broke off running as I followed suit. The first half of the open plain, we encountered no resistance, but I finally glanced at the tall tower, and that was when plasma bolts and spiker needles began riddling the ground around us.

I leapt the last fifteen feet and rolled, only stopping once I had collided with the cement wall separating us from the building to our back. Lynx and Hawk were already waiting when I finally regrouped myself.

"Sir," Hawk began, loading his gun, "who, exactly, is our target?"

Lynx did likewise, staring at me. I had neglected to tell them that. A mental mistake I had told myself I would never make.

"An Elite named Garsham Foramee. You'll know him. According to intel, he's the only Elite wearing gold armor. They both nodded. I knew they were both thinking it, so I decided to tell them. "The other team is a distraction. As cruel as it sounds, it's necessary. A strike force of three has a better chance of sneaking into a building this size than a strike force of eight." They both responded at the same time.

"Sir, yes, sir." I didn't know why I told them. The only squad member to ever question my decisions was Dingo. I hated those soldiers that went to an officer training school. They always needed to know _why_ they were doing something, and couldn't follow the damn orders they were given.

"Lynx, start on that wall. Hawk, help me lay cover fire," I ordered, and each did as they were told. Like a good soldier. Hawk and I stood, guns already blazing. My tactic seemed to be working. The guards on the wall top were too intent on killing us they didn't notice Lynx cutting through the stone, giving us a way in. I smiled to myself. But then again, Grunts weren't the smartest enemies. After several extremely painful minutes, a small slab of rock caved inwards, allowing us entrance.

"Lynx," I yelled, "crawl through. Hawk, follow next time you need to reload." Two acknowledge lights winked on, and I could barely see Lynx crawling through the gap he had just created. I kept track of my shots, calculating how many more bursts I could fire before needing to reload, and still have Hawk reload before me. I fired three shot bursts two seconds apart, picking targets carefully. On my final burst, Hawk ducked down and all but dove through the hole. I took stock of the situation before calling out "cover me!"

I dropped and crawled through the opening, hearing gunshots from the far side of the wall. Once through, I brought myself to bear on the rooftop again, reloading as I did so. I fired three more bursts before looking a the building before me.

"Hawk," I called. He glanced at me. "Break for the door," I said, while pointing off to the left. He nodded, and picked up on the ploy immediately. He broke formation and ran off to our left, not bothering to fire. Once out of sight from the enemy, he circled back around to the outside door. "Lynx," I called once more. "Follow suit," I said, pointing to the right. He nodded and he too broke formation, circling around once he wasn't being fired at. I turned and ran, following Hawk's path, and met up with them at the door.

"I opticalled the door, sir," Hawk said, not waiting for an order. "The coast is clear.

"Good Man, Andrew," I said, showing I was being sincere. He nodded, then gingerly pushed open the door as Lynx stepped in the opening, rifle leveled on the long, dark hallway. He nodded and Hawk and I followed, Hawk covering doorways we passed while I watched our six.

We reached the end of the hallway and Lynx held up a fist. He scanned down the corridors, taking in every detail. After a brief moment of complete silence, he held up three fingers and pointed to our left, then two fingers and pointed to the right.

I was just about to make a decision on which way to go when alarms and sirens began blaring all around us.

I spurted out a quiet "Beta team" before I knew I had thought it, then told my team to hide. We each ducked into a separate doorway, attempting to hide as best we could, which is hard to do when you're wearing nearly a literal ton of armor. Elites, Grunts, and an occasional Brute ran past the hallway we had just been standing in, all wearing matching armor. Hawk, the closest to the entrance, chanced a hushed 'Mercs'. I smiled. No matter how badly I felt about killing soldiers, I never felt that way about killing mercenaries. I despised them, actually. They killed for the love of it. They killed for monetary gain, and that repulsed me. Sure, I had to kill people for a living, but it was to ensure peace throughout the galaxy, not for any sort of personal profit.

"Those alarms would be beta team arriving," I commented. "And hopefully they think it was us." I waited another minute or two before I gave any orders.

"Move out team. Head for the highest floor. He's likely to be there, letting his mercs do the killing. Eliminate any hostiles." Both acknowledge lights blinked, and I took lead, reloading my assault rifle as I did. I veered right and continued down the hallway, my eyes never leaving the sights of my rifle.

"Hostile, four o'clock" I heard Hawk say, nervousness creeping into his voice. I spun on my heel and fired. I watched as three bursts hit the target simultaneously, bringing the small Grunt to his knees. He sputtered, then fell. I turned back around, frantically searching for a staircase. Every second wasted searching for our target was another second beta team had to deal with the probably increasing number of enemies.

I found an entrance, and kicked open the door, gun once again leveled. I cleared the immediate area of hostiles, and began climbing the stairs, gun barrel following the curving motion of the staircase.

Cobra's voice pierced the silence in my helmet, desperate, but calm.

"We're taking heavy fire. They're attempting to flank. Orders, sir?"

I hesitated. A deadly mistake in many situations.

"State your position, Cobra," I demanded. It wasn't Cobra's voice I got in return.

"Front doors, sir! They're coming hot and heavy. I don't know how much longer we can hold them!"

"Damn it, Dingo," I cried, "you speak when you're spoken to. Do you understand me, soldier?" There was a pause, followed by a less-than enthusiastic 'sir, yes, sir'. I turned back to my two squad mates. "Help them. Both of you, go. You may be able to come from behind and surprise them."

"No," Lynx said, without pausing to think. "With all due respect, sir, you can't do this on your own."

Now, why did I always get the feeling whenever someone said 'with all due respect', they really meant 'up yours'?

"I can and I will," I replied, maybe a bit too harshly. "Once you save beta's ass, you get the hell out of here and wait in the woods. You'll know if I go to Nana's." That was in inside joke in our team. Several of Ice's pets had died when they went to stay with his grandmother, back on Earth. Ever since then, whenever something died, we all said it had 'gone to Nana's'. It was a terrible attempt at a joke in a terrible situation, so no one laughed. "If I do, tell Cobra he's in charge of the mission. This one must be completed."

They nodded and left, taking the stairs three at a time. I stared up the remaining flights and sighed, knowing this was going to turn into a very long mission.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

When the other two left, the staircase was eerily quiet. I took several deep breaths before I continued onward. I despised the quiet. I could hear my own heart beating and my own slow, steady breathing. Ever since I could remember I hated silence. Normally I'd just turn on music to tune out the silence, but that wasn't an option now. I needed silence to hear movement other than my own. I mounted the stairs one at a time, focusing on the top step in my field of vision. I moved with slow, calculated steps, waiting until I knew I had sure footing before lifting myself up to the next step. I heard strained voices emanating from above me. I couldn't quite hear what they were saying, but I figured it wasn't good. I heard a deep, gruff voice bark out some order in an alien language. My translation chip in my helmet worked quickly, though, and almost instantly after his voice subsided, a computerized voice, sounding eerily like the original, barked at me in English.

"Cover all the entrances. I don't want a single Demon reaching here!"

Demons. That's what they called us. They had no idea we were nothing close to a demon. All we were was regular people. Regular people with enhanced senses, reaction time, pain tolerance and not to mention the MJOLNIR armor we all wore.

I froze. I heard movement from above, but nothing came down towards me. I quickly peeked around the nearest corner and saw two grunts conferring. I stashed my assault rife by leaving it to the magnet imbedded in the back of my armor and drew my pistol. There was no reason to waste valuable rifle ammo when I had the trusty M6G Magnum. I stepped around the corner and fired a single shot. One Grunt fell dead, a hole through his skull. The second stared at me a moment before letting out a surprised yelp. Due to his twitch, my shot was slightly off, but it severed a methane hose that lead to his life support pack. He fell, clutching his throat. It was surely a painful death, but the little bastard deserved nothing less.

As I stepped over the squirming body, I replaced the pistol at my hip, and once again pulled out the Assault Rifle. I checked the magazine, was satisfied my the bullet count, and replaced it, enjoying the small clicking noise it made when it slid into place.

The hallways were bare and sterile white. I expected that, seeing as how this used to be a hospital before this group of Covenant seized it.

I took slow, careful steps down the middle of the hall, listening as the sound of my boots echoed off the walls, giving it a very spooky feeling. It was like that moment in a haunted house. The one right before you knew something was going to pop out at you, but you don't know quite when. My heart began to beat faster, awaiting the horrors that waited behind every door, every nook and cranny, just waiting for a chance to scare me to death.

I was coming to the end of the hallway, a door standing ajar in front of me. I crept closer, keeping my boots as quiet as possible when I heard the slight whirring from my translation chip.

"The Devils fight ferociously, my commander." It was the voice of an Elite. I couldn't hear a response, but I kept inching closer, hoping I could hear the other voice.

"We shall overcome them sir." A pause. "No, I did not mean to—" His voice was silenced. I was only a few inches from the door when he spoke again.

"Yes, commander, I will do so."

I slid to where I could see through the crack in the door, and stared into the room. It was an operating room that was turned into a command center. My eyes scanned the scene, looking for any other enemies, but the only bogey was the single, gold-clad Elite talking to a hologram of another Elite.

"Make sure you eliminate all the Demons, Garlak Dramaree. Reinforcements should be arriving in one standard day," the hologram said. I cursed mentally and had to restrain myself from punching something. Garsham had either escaped or he had never been here, but he was still our target. I had been given a name, and it was that name I meant to erase. I eased the door open slightly, attempting to gain more visibility, but stopped when Garlak started speaking again.

"As you wish, O Garsham Foramee." He bowed deeply, and I got a clear view of the hologram. It stared back at me, a hated brewing in its eyes. It began a gesture that looked like a goodbye when Garlak's head snapped around to look at me. His plasma rifle was trained on my head.

"It seems as though you have a visitor, Garlak," the hologrammed Garsham said, a pleased tone in his voice. Garlak only nodded at me. "I shall take my leave. Dispose of this Demon," he said, before the hologram failed. Then it was only me and Garlak.

He took a few steps towards me, his firing point never leaving my faceplate.

"Stand, Demon," he ordered, and I obeyed. There was nothing I could do at this point. "Sit," he began, rather calmly, "we will talk." I hated listening and obeying, knowing my team was under fire, and at one point I thought about sending a distress signal to them, but realized it would be misinterpreted. I wanted them to run away from here, not to it. As I walked to the table to sit in one of the chairs, I kept a close eye on my team's vitals on the bottom of my HUD. Everyone was green, except Nexus, who was barely in the yellow. Luckily, the only time I had to panic was if any of their vitals flat lined, and even then it could be remedied.

I sat across from the Elite, my hands palm down on the table. He stared at me with interest.

"No one has ever captured one of your kind before. We do not believe in captives," he said, speaking nearly perfect English. "To disobey an order is severe, but image the praise I will get for bringing my leader a living Demon." His mandibles twisted into what I guessed was an Elite smile.

Nexus's vitals dropped into the red, shortly followed by Ice, Dingo and Razor falling into yellow. The situation was getting desperate. I needed to figure some way out of it.

"You know," Garlak continued, his eyes never leaving mine, "your people should be very grateful that we have, how you humans put it, turned a new leaf." I didn't bother to ask what it was because I was sure he was about to tell me.

"Harkran is a very generous being. He believes in being fair to other races. Instead of killing you all, he has decided it would be best to let you live." He paused, a look of glee filling his eyes. "As slaves," he concluded. I was about to let some alien slang fly when I noticed Cobra Lynx and Hawk's vitals drop, followed quickly by Ice and Razor's vitals decline to red.

"You," I began before a red flashing caught my attention. Nexus had fallen and his vitals flat lined. I prayed someone would be there to save him. Garlak just stared intently. I was helpless at the hands of this alien as I watched my troops slowly die just a few floors below me.

I heard a slight crackle, like a voice on an intercom, and Garlak pressed his right hand to his head as if listening. I took that chance to act, and prayed it worked.

In one fluid motion, my left hand batted away Garalk's rifle and my right drew my pistol and began systematically firing into the Elite's head. He fell, his purple gore lining the wall behind him. I stood and stared at my adversary before turning to leave to help my squad. Ice's heartbeat had stopped, and Nexus wasn't looking too good, from what I could see. If his heart didn't start beating soon, he could sustain brain damage.

Lynx dropped to red, followed by Razor flat-lining and Cobra jumping from yellow straight into the same death-like state as the others.

"Sir," I heard a voice from over my intercom. It was Hawk. "Sir, what the hell is going on? The hostiles just suddenly up and left. Not a single one left. Maybe heading to your position, sir," he suggested. I knew he was right.

I searched Garlak's body for anything useful before I needed to leave. My fingers flew over his armor, pressing on areas that looked like pockets of any type. The only thing I found was a small key and a large, cylindrical object. I grabbed them both and began to run to the door. Footsteps pounded down the hall, coming towards me. I froze. My eyes darted around the room, searching for any escape. The only thing I could find were windows. I raced to the nearest one and looked out, my heard sinking. It was at least eight stories to the ground. I couldn't fly, so I was stuck. True, my armor might have been able to save me, but I wasn't willing to take that chance.

The door whipped open, and in the doorway stood a single Brute. I had never officially seen one that close. I had seen them in news videos but never like this. They were even more intimidating in person. It hesitated for a second, then charged me. I couldn't think fast enough, but all I could do was put my hands up. I punched with my right, the one holding the little cylinder. The Brute stopped and stared down at my hand, a stunned look plastered on his features. My eyes wandered down to where my hand was pushing into his stomach, and my jaw dropped. From the cylinder came a large, light, beam of light in the shape of a two pronged sword. I pulled it from the Brute and pushed him over, his dead weight slumping to the floor. Behind him were Grunts. Too many for me to take by myself. Even with the beam sword. I pulled it backwards, and the beam shot back in. I looked at the window again, every passing moment making that escape plan more sane. By the time the Grunts had fired, it seemed like the most normal thing to me.

I raced towards the window and jumped, breaking the pane with my right shoulder. It was time to test if gravity was still working.


	3. Chapter 3

_So, this chapter is really just a filler for anyone who cares about this story. It seems like almost no one is reading it, and I'm not sure I'll continue it for very long if that keeps up. Please R&R._

**Chapter 3**

As soon as I was in mid-air, I regretted my decision. To me, it felt like one of those old cartoons, where the character would hover in the air before plummeting downward. It seemed like an eternity before I began my decent. I swear I could almost hear that cartoon whistle that accompanied it. As I looked at the ground, I realized how poor my decision really was. Not only would I fall eight stories before hitting the ground, I'd be landing on concrete.

As I fell, I covered my head with my arms, and prayed my arms weren't going to break. As it were, I landed arms first with a sickening _crack _and flipped head over heels away from the building like a rag doll, unable to alter my trajectory in away way. I finally came to a stop with a _thud_ as my back slammed into a tree. I lay there for a moment, assessing the damage done to myself. I moved both arms, relieved the 'crack' hadn't come from them. I tried to stand, but immediately fell over. I lay there, thinking about what was to become of me, of my team. I voice broke into my day-mare.

"Sir, orders? There's too many injured to carry." It was Hawk. Good ol' Hawk to the rescue. I tried to clear my head as best as I could before responding.

"Carry as many as possible. Leave as few as you can. I'll meet you back at the tree line." And with that, communication was severed. I stood on shaky legs and took in my surroundings. There was a large, concrete wall to my left and about an eighth of a mile away, there was a gate. It was closed and locked tight, but that nothing to me in this tank I called armor. I hobbled at first, looking at the large impact crater I had left in the concrete. Once I was satisfied with my results, I ran as fast as I could, ignoring the shouts and fire coming from behind me. I let my shields take the punishment.

As I neared the gate, I noticed it was a typical human design. It was long links of wiring twisted around another in a patter called 'chain link'. It didn't matter to me. I lowered my shoulder and quickened my pace. I collided with the fence, and it bowed out with my transferred momentum. I pushed it to the breaking point and beyond. The links were weak from the speed and toughness of my armor, and it broke, leaving a SPARTAN-sized hole. Once through, I ran straight for the tree-line, dodging left and right at random intervals. The soil exploded at my feet, and it pressed me farther. I leapt the last fifteen feet, and rolled into the woods. I sprung up and ran, ducking behind trees as often as possible. I veered off left after one hundred fifty yards, and began looking for my team.

"Right," I heard a voice call. Without a second thought, I turned right, and nearly bowled over Ice. I spun out of the way and tripped over my feet. I lay on the ground after my fall, and just stared at the sky. My eyes were drawn to the vitals, and saw that luckily, everyone's heart was beating.

"Report," I demanded, my voice not mimicking my mindset.

"Everyone is back and stable, except Nexus and Razor," Hawk replied, kneeling down beside me. "I'm sorry, sir. We weren't able to carry them. I was planning on going back to—"

"No," I said, cutting him off. "Not yet. We'll go back, but we need to regroup. They don't know how to torture the other two. They don't even know we're wearing armor, for all we know." He nodded at me. "Set up an HQ," I said. I rolled over and lifted myself to my feet and skulked off into the forest to devise a plan to rescue my men.


	4. Chapter 4

_I'm getting kinda desperate and starting to believe no one is reading this story. I'm about to give up and forget about it, unless I'm convinced to keep it going somehow. Please R&R._

**Chapter 4**

I sat for hours, my brain aching and hurting as I attempted, in vain, to come up with a plot to rescue my squad. I must have dozed off because I was greeted by the kind voice of Dingo.

"Sir, wake up," he screamed into his COM. I opened my eyes to see his visor less than two inches from mine. I shoved him away, slowly picking myself up and dusting my armor off.

"The hell, Dingo," I chided, obviously not happy with him. "These COM units work fine, you don't have to scream to be heard." He shrugged and went back to sulking by himself. No doubt he thought he'd be called a hero if he was the one to discover the commanding officer hurt.

"Order, sir," Ice asked, cradling his left arm. I looked him over and just shook my head.

"No, soldier. Right now, we rest. I can't mount an assault with your arm in that condition."

"Or Hawk's leg," Cobra said, gesturing towards Hawk. Hawk merely shrugged as he sat on a stump, his right leg elevated on a fallen tree.

I turned to stare at the large, concrete building in front of me, my mind racing and reeling to come up with an answer. It drifted back to training and a familiar scenario I had to put my team through.

We were all 12 or 13, and we had just been through augmentation. That was the most painful time in my life, and none of us wanted to relive it. In our training, we were locked in battle against Marines with tranquilizer guns. We were armed only with sticks. Our training missions were getting closer and closer to impossible, but we overcame them all. Sneak into an enemy base undetected? Piece of cake. Eliminate a target without being caught? Walk in the park. Recover a lost teammate from the hostiles? This one was a problem. We did it, alright, but it took a while. Back then, we were unarmed, unshielded and immature. Our group had fallen apart at the seams. Our current mission was four years later, and we had everything we needed: brains, brawn, speed and skill. So why was this so hard?  
"Cobra," I called without turning, "call command. Ask to borrow two of their Hornets." Cobra nodded and immediately established a link with HQ. "Ice," I said, also in a demanding tone, "contact the nearest base. Ask to use their Ionic Tunneler." He nodded as well.

"What can I do," Dingo asked, jumping to his feet. I looked at him for a moment as if considering what I should have him do.

"Sit your ass down and shut up," I responded, figuring that was the best answer to his question.

"But I want to do something," He whined. If he wasn't before, he was really starting to get on my nerves now. Normally, I tried to be a good leader. Impartial, neutral and non-judging. But with Dingo, all those qualities seemed to leave me.

"If you really wanna do something, Dingo, go get yourself killed by charging that base head first. I wouldn't advise it, personally." He stared daggers at me through the visor, I could tell. After a moment of silence, he shrugged.

"Maybe I will." He began to walk off into the forest, then stopped, waiting for me to call him back. When no sound reached his ears, he continued, glancing back every hundred feet or so.

"You think that was smart," Lynx asked. I shrugged.

"Look at it this way. If he comes back, we have another man to infiltrate the base. If he dies, we have one less whining Sergeant to deal with. Either way you look at it, it's a win-win situation." Lynx laughed.

"I guess you're right. I never thought of it that way."

"Tunneler confirmed, sir," Ice reported.

"Hornets inbound," Cobra confirmed.

"Good," I concluded. "Lynx, if you had captives in a place like that, where would you keep them?" He hesitated for a moment, thinking of the best response.

"On the top floor," he asked, not quite sure the answer was the right one. I nodded and patted his shoulder, giving him credit where it was due.

"And Ice, what would be the best strategy to rescue said captive?" He hesitated too, but not as long.

"Dropping in on the roof?" I nodded again, patting his shoulder.

"Correct. Meaning all the guards are where, Hawk?" He responded quicker than the other two.

"The top floor, waiting for the drop-in!" I nodded.

"Which means, we tunnel in as a diversion to remove all the other guards," I heard Dingo say.

"My god, Dingo, you may have a brain in that head after all," I commented.

"I'm a lot smarter than you give me credit for, sir. By the way, I heard all that win-win bullshit earlier."I paused for a moment at those words.

"I know," I replied.


End file.
